WASHINGTON (AP) — Tariffs paid by midsize U.S. businesses tripled over the course of past year, new research tied to one of America’s leading banks showed on Thursday — more evidence that President Donald Trump ‘s push to charge higher taxes on imports is causing economic disruption.

The additional taxes have meant that companies that employ a combined 48 million people in the U.S. — the kinds of businesses that Trump had promised to revive — have had to find ways to absorb the new expense, by passing it along to customers in the form of higher prices, employing fewer workers or accepting lower profits.

“That’s a big change in their cost of doing business,” said Chi Mac, business research director of the JPMorganChase Institute, which published the analysis Thursday. “We also see some indications that they may be shifting away from transacting with China and maybe toward some other regions in Asia.”

The research does not say how the additional costs are flowing through the economy, but it indicates that tariffs are being paid by U.S. companies. The study is part of a growing body of economic analyses that counter the administration’s claims that foreigners pay the tariffs.

The JPMorganChase Institute report used payments data to look at businesses that might lack the pricing power of large multinational companies to offset tariffs, but may be small enough to quickly change supply chains to minimize exposure to the tax increases. The companies tended to have revenues between $10 million and $1 billion with fewer than 500 employees, a category known as “middle market.”

The Trump administration has been adamant that the tariffs are a boon for the economy, businesses, and workers. Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, lashed out on Wednesday at research by the New York Federal Reserve showing that nearly 90% of the burden for Trump’s tariffs fell on U.S. companies and consumers.

“The paper is an embarrassment,” Hassett told CNBC. “It’s, I think, the worst paper I’ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve system. The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined.”

Trump increased the average tariff rate to 13% from 2.6% last year, according to the New York Fed researchers. He declared that tariffs on some items such as steel, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities were in the national security interest of the country. He also declared an economic emergency to bypass Congress and impose a baseline tax on goods from much of the world in April 2025 at an event he called “Liberation Day.”

The high rates provoked a financial market panic, prompting Trump to walk back his rates and then engage in talks with multiple countries that led to a set of new trade frameworks. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on whether Trump surpassed his legal authority by declaring an economic emergency.

Trump was elected in 2024 on his promise to tame inflation, but his tariffs have contributed to voter frustration over affordability. While inflation has not spiked during Trump’s term thus far, hiring slowed sharply and a team of academic economists estimate that consumer prices were roughly 0.8 percentage points higher than they would otherwise be.

When the album dropped at the stroke of midnight on February 13, I found myself lying in the dark listening to Charli XCX’s album, Wuthering Heights. As her second soundtrack album (after Bottoms in 2023), this record was made for Emerald Fennell’s 2026 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights. But this collection of songs also stands as a musical adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel in its own right.

The opening track, House, struck me with its ability to succinctly get to the heart of what Wuthering Heights is. It is not just the title of Brontë’s book and Fennell’s film, but also the name of a house, the story’s main setting.

Rather than offering a typical three-act structure of beginning, middle and end, Brontë’s novel is an experimental, strange form. I conceive the novel as structured largely by the movement of the characters between the titular Wuthering Heights and neighbouring property Thrushcross Grange. There is a constant movement, a haunting, between poles rather than a clear linear progression from point A to point B.

I was pleased, therefore, to see that Charli’s part-film soundtrack, part-book adaptation has adopted this impetus towards formal experimentation – albeit in her own distinct way.

Brontë’s story utilises the technique of frame narrative – the layering of several stories within a wider narrative – in a complex web of flashbacks, unreliable narrators and perspective shifts. Charli’s fourth track, Always Everywhere reflects this narrative multiplicity on a sonic level, particularly by evoking the elemental setting of Heathcliff and Cathy’s story.

The grand scale and layers of the sound allow me to visualise and hear the Yorkshire moors. Just as Charli’s lyric “your laughter tearing through the rain” suggests, Always Everywhere has a wide, spatial quality. This song is a vast space through which the wind blows, or where a ghostly voice travels through the sound until it reaches the listener’s ears.

Boundaries of the self

This dispersed, abstracted narrative offered by Brontë and Charli reflect their shared interest in the boundaries of the self. Brontë fans are well-acquainted with Cathy’s famous line: “Nelly, I am Heathcliff.” The album is similarly concerned with interrogating the conception of the self as a sealed entity, instead seeing the individual as spilling out into something other than itself.

In the song Out of Myself, we are attacked by aggressive strings, in a way that feels romantic in the poetic sense. Here, we have the pain and the pleasure of the sublime (an overwhelming aesthetic experience of awe and even terror that writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge wished to capture in their poetry) – a quasi-religious experience. This is why the sado-masochistic imagery in the song’s lyrics – the imperatives to “put the rope between my teeth”, “push my cheek into the stone” and “please rub the salt into my wounds” – offer more than just shock value. The navigation and testing of boundaries contained in these images reflect the novel’s status as a gothic romance.

The central metaphor of the track Chains of Love reflects the ambivalent character of love in the original text. Following Cathy’s declaration that she is Heathcliff, she adds: “He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure […] but as my own being”. The “chains” in Charli’s song act like the star-crossed destiny of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a symbol of an enduring yet tragic partnership – a partnership that the character of Isabella directly mentions in Fennell’s film.

This ambivalence is matched by the use of the strings on the album. In Always Everywhere, the strings represent a cinematic romanticism. In House, Charli uses creepy strings and screams of demonic possession, borrowed directly from the soundscape of horror films. The marriage of strings and electronic sounds represents a similarly complex relationship. At one point in Funny Mouth (specifically, at 1 minute 17), the strings sound like they could be an instrument setting on a keyboard. In My Reminder, choppy vocal effects and intermissions of discordant strings fight for their position on the track.

Sonic melancholia

Charli’s album does not shy from outlining the complexities and, indeed, the problems of Cathy and Heathcliff’s love. The psychoanalytic theorists Maria Torok and Nicolas Abraham have explained how the act of mourning can turn into its excessive and neurotic counterpart: melancholia, in which a person “incorporates” or preserves a beloved dead object instead of accepting the reality that the object has gone.

Think of, for example, Heathcliff’s desire to dig up Cathy’s remains on two occasions in the book. Charli’s song Altars reflects the double meaning of Heathcliff’s obsession with Cathy. “Your altar” could be interpreted as a symbol of betrayal; for example, when Cathy stood at the wedding altar with the man she married, Edgar Linton, instead of with her true love, Heathcliff. This phrase could also be interpreted as Heathcliff worshipping at Cathy’s altar even, or perhaps especially, in death. In response to this excessive mourning, Eyes of the World, a feature with Sky Ferreira, offers a plea in its final line: “Set me free”.

Perhaps, then, this is a useful way to navigate what some see as the aberration of adapting English Literary classics into other forms, whether songs or films. Charli XCX’s Wuthering Heights is a reminder that adaptation need not be understood as a detraction of the original novel. To take Charli’s language of nature v nurture in her penultimate track My Reminder, while the album may have emerged from the “same four walls” of Wuthering Heights, it is “different”. This album is not a negation of Brontë’s novel, but a productive, imaginative, beautiful haunting.

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The Daytona 500 and NBA All-Star Game posted audience gains on Sunday despite going up against the Winter Olympics.

Tyler Reddick’s win in the Daytona 500 drew an average of 7.49 million viewers on Fox, up 11% from last year. It was the most-watched NASCAR season opener since 2023, when 8.17 million viewers tuned in.

It was also the most-watched non-Olympic sporting event last week, according to Nielsen.

The audience peaked at 9.15 million for the finish.

The race also did not have a rain delay for the first time in three years, which helped bring in more viewers. Last year, the race was delayed for more than three hours, and the 2024 race was moved to Monday.

The NBA All-Star Game on NBC averaged 6.73 million viewers, but the total audience across NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo was 8.8 million, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

It was the most-watched NBA All-Star Game since 2011, which was also in Los Angeles and averaged 9.1 million.

This was the first time since 2002 that the All-Star Game was shown on network television. From 2003 to 2025, it was shown on TNT.

The total viewership was an 87% increase over last year (4.7 million). It peaked at 9.8 million viewers from 7-7:15 p.m. Eastern for the closing minutes of the USA Stripes’ 48-45 victory over the World team.

The All-Star Game aired between NBC’s afternoon and prime time Olympics coverage.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

On Wednesday (February 18), Nicholas Ralph and Rachel Shenton, from All Creatures Great and Small, were seen at Summerbridge Methodist Church, near Ripon.

The actor and actress, who play James and Helen Herriot, were all smiles, as the church captioned a photo of the pair: “Look who visited the Summerbridge Methodist Church HUB Community Cafe today.”

Nicholas Ralph and Rachel Shenton from All Creatures Great and Small at Summerbridge Methodist Church (Image: SUMMERBRIDGE METHODIST CHURCH)

This sighting of the pair sparked rumours over whether they were filming All Creatures Great and Small, which is filmed across North Yorkshire.

At the end of last year, series six of the popular programme concluded with a festive episode, but series seven and eight have both been confirmed by the producers and production companies.

The much-loved period drama, inspired by James Herriot’s timeless veterinary stories, finished on our screens with a Christmas Eve episode, transporting audiences back to 1945 as the Second World War came to an end.

Set once again in the fictional village of Darrowby, filmed in the real-life market town of Grassington, the latest series followed James, Helen, Siegfried and Tristan as they navigated a period of profound change, hope and healing.

Despite some parts filmed in Grassington, other sections of the TV show are filmed in Nidderdale, where Summerbridge Methodist Church is located.

Following the post and photo being uploaded, a lot of fans were intrigued about the potential filming, commenting: “I hope this means that the new series is well underway,” while another person added: “This is exciting, hopefully it’s linked to filming nearby.”

Its success has also turned Grassington into a tourist hotspot, with visitors keen to explore familiar filming locations, including The Drovers Arms pub, filmed at The Devonshire Inn, and the Stripey Badger bookshop, transformed on screen into Endelby’s Grocers.

Hall Hill Farm, near Lanchester, which first opened to the public in 1981, will welcome visitors back on Saturday (February 21), marking the start of a landmark season.

Hall Hill Farm heated play barn with more seating (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

Hall Hill Farm new undercover toy tractor area (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

Hall Hill Farm new animal barn (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

Hall Hill Farm, County Durham (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

The family-run attraction, now led by Ann Darlington and son Richard, started as a simple lambing event and has grown into one of the UK’s most beloved farm experiences.

With more than 100,000 visitors last year, Hall Hill Farm has now become a must-visit destination for families seeking hands-on farm experiences.

Hall Hill Farm Highland Cattle (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

Hall Hill Farm highland calf (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

Hall Hill Farm, County Durham (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

Ann, tourism manager, said: “Our biggest development in 45 years is now complete, and we couldn’t be more excited.

“From new animal barns and a Playbarn Café to an undercover toy tractor area, music space, and upgraded accessible facilities, there’s something new for every visitor.

Richard Darlington with goat (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

“Celebrating our Sapphire anniversary this year makes it even more special, and we can’t wait to welcome families from across the North East to enjoy all the farm has to offer.”

The improvements include new animal barns, a new undercover toy tractor area, a dedicated music space, more seating in the heated play barn, and a brand-new Playbarn Café.

Hall Hill Farm Valais lambs (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

The farm has also upgraded its toilet facilities, providing improved accessibility to ensure comfort and access for all visitors.

The old barn in the farmyard, originally constructed in 1934, the year Farmer Jack Gibson was born, has been replaced with a modern 21st-century building, while former polytunnels have been upgraded with permanent structures.

Richard Darlington with goats (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

Ann Darlington with Highland Calf (Image: HALL HILL FARM)

The new season brings plenty of adorable arrivals, too.

Tiny pygmy goats, striking black-nosed Valais lambs, and cute piglets are already on the farm, with baby chicks expected any day.

Farmer Richard said: “We’re thrilled to welcome everyone back for half-term and to share our popular Highland Experience, where families can hand-feed and stroke last year’s Highland calves.

“The experience will also run on the following weekend, and we’ll be open on weekends throughout March before moving to daily openings from March 28 through to the end of September.

“We want to say a huge thank you to all our visitors, past, present and future – for supporting the farm over the years and helping make our 45th Sapphire anniversary so special.”

Over the years, Hall Hill Farm has won numerous regional and national tourism Awards and continues to receive national recognition, having been named Large Farm Attraction of the Year and Large Visitor Attraction of the Year at the North East England Tourism Awards in 2025.

Switzerland have the hammer in this fourth end. Team GB now have three stones on the centre line, with two of those being in the house, after a clever shot from Lammie. However Michel is able to blast two of those out but one GB stone is left in the house on that centre line.

As we hit the halfway mark of this end, Switzerland look to be on top and GB have some work to do not to drop multiple points. But Hardie responds with a terrific shot, deploying a lovely hit and roll, managing to knock two Swiss stones out of the house whilst retaining that stone in the house. That GB stone is immediately knocked out though by Swiss skip Schwaller.

With five stones left in the end, there are no stones in the house for either team but Switzerland will have the final stone. That is a big error from Switzerland as Schwaller looked to clip one stone off another to potentially put two Swiss stones in the house but it goes just past and runs through, meaning there are still no stones in the house.

Mouat manages to get one into the house, pretty near the centre, but Schwarz-van Berkel then sends down a good shot, lying his stone on top of the GB stone. One stone left for each team in this end.

Mouat’s shot then is not his best as it clears out the house. Switzerland now have a sneaky shot at getting two, perhaps making up for their error earlier in the end. Even if they make a mistake, the end will be blanked. The shot from Schwarz-van Berkel is on point, as he gets the final stone to clip their stone just before the house and both stones end up in the house to give Switzerland two.

Switzerland lead 4-2 through four ends.

A dramatic late intervention by a judge has thrown Sir Keir Starmer’s beleaguered plans to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius further into chaos.

Justice James Lewis ruled from a flight at around 25,000ft in the air on Thursday to temporarily block an order removing the islanders, who had landed earlier this week.

The decision adds to the prime minister’s growing nightmare over the islands after US president Donald Trump declared this week that he was opposed to the deal in a move which could veto Sir Keir’s plans.

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The judgment comes after four Chagos islanders landed on one of the Indian Ocean archipelago’s islands on Tuesday to establish what they say will be a permanent settlement, in a move they hope will complicate a British plan to transfer the territory to Mauritius.

The “advance party” was led by Misley Mandarin, the elected Chagossian first minister who has pledged to establish a permanent resettlement on Île du Coin, part of the coral atoll of Peros Banhos.

“We, the people of the Chagos Islands, stand today on the soil of our homeland,” the party announced in a “Declaration of Return”, adding: “We are the advance party. Hundreds more are following. We have come home.”

They were served with papers to leave the islands on Wednesday, but their lawyer James Tumbridge successfully applied for an injunction.

The move came as their representatives this week also applied for a new judge in the UK case to challenge the plans by Sir Keir’s government to hand over the islands to Mauritius.

The ruling by Justice Lewis, chief justice of the British Indian Ocean territory, was based on the delay in the UK case by the islanders challenging the government’s plans for the island and complaining they were not properly consulted.

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The islanders were removed between 1967 and 1973 as part of the security arrangements for the top-secret Diego Garcia base operated by the UK and US.

Justice Lewis said: “There is no doubt the balance of convenience falls on the side of the claimants (the islanders). They are 120 miles from Diego Garcia and pose no threat to national security on the evidence before me.

“If they are deported they will have great difficulties in returning. In my judgment the claimants have made out their application in the light of no response or engagement by the commissioner.

“It follows that I grant a temporary injunction against the enforcement of the s.12 (removal) notices. This injunction will remain in place for seven days to allow the defendants to file a response.

“In the absence of a response the injunction will remain in force until determination of the judicial review application. At the expiry of seven days I will make further order if the defendant files a response.”

Meanwhile, sources close to the Trump administration have said that the president has decided to object to the deal because the US has learnt that China and India could be negotiating to get control of different islands in the archipelago.

President Trump is also believed to be angered by Sir Keir refusing the US permission to use RAF bases to strike Iran. There are also fears that the UK is now feeding Mauritius military information about the use of Diego Garcia in line with the deal to lease back the base.

The Independent has contacted the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for comment.

FBI Director Kash Patel has taken an agency jet to Italy, where he has plans to hold official meetings and watch Olympic hockey games, CBS News first reported.

Patel reportedly took off Thursday morning and landed in Italy hours later. He’s expected to attend meetings with law enforcement officials and watch the men’s USA Olympic hockey team compete in Milan, sources told CBS News.

FBI directors must use government planes for both personal and official travel to ensure they maintain access to secure communications and can move quickly in an emergency, according to CBS News. They’re also required to reimburse the government for personal flights.

Ben Williamson, the FBI’s assistant director for public affairs, responded to the CBS News report in a post on X: “No, it’s not a personal trip. Director Patel is on a trip that was planned months ago.”

“It includes: partner meetings with Italian law enforcement and security officials (they invited the Director last July), meeting with Ambassador Fertitta (as a follow up to our law enforcement roundtable he hosted in January), meetings with Legat staff, and more,” Williamson wrote.

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“The FBI also has a major role in Olympic security – as we do with the World Cup, F1, and more – so we have a U.S. consulate briefing on Olympic security and current FBI posture, as well as thanking FBI personnel on the ground,” he continued.

In a follow-up post, Williamson added: “Kash just called me and told me to add ‘Please tell them yes, I am rooting for the greatest team on earth from the greatest country on earth.’”

When reached for comment, the FBI referred The Independent to Williamson’s statement on X.

Patel has previously faced scrutiny for his use of government jets.

Late last year, top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said they were “demanding answers” after reports emerged that Patel had used government jets for “personal travel,” including a “date night” with his girlfriend, country musician Alexis Wilkins.

When Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked Patel about these reports in December, he was quick to defend himself.

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“It’s simple,” Patel said. “The FBI director — all FBI directors — are required users of the FBI plane. They don’t let me fly commercially. But my predecessors wasted millions of dollars because they were too lazy to drive an extra 20 minutes and go to Andrews Air Force Base.”

“They used D.C. Reagan National as a personal hub, costing the taxpayers $4 million. I shut that policy off and mandated the use of government airfields,” he added.

It was also revealed in November that Patel’s girlfriend receives protection from a security detail.

“Ms. Wilkins is receiving a protective detail because she has faced hundreds of credible death threats related to her relationship with Director Patel, whom she has been dating for three years. Out of respect for her safety, we will not be providing additional details,” an FBI spokesperson told MS NOW.

Big tech companies are reportedly developing their own isolated, off-grid data centers where they can consume resources to provide the storage and compute needed for AI development and other digital services, according to a new report.

The GW Ranch project will see 8,000 acres of land in West Texas turned into an entirely off-grid data center facility that will consume more energy than the entire city of Chicago, according to The Washington Post.

The new project will generate all of its own electricity through natural gas and solar panels and—crucially for tech companies—won’t have to wait around for utilities to solve power availability issues.

The GW Ranch project is just one of several off-grid data center undertakings planned at sites in Wyoming, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah, Ohio, and Tennessee, according to regulatory filings, permits, and other documents reviewed by the Post.

Several of the projects are already under construction. The builds are being pushed by big-name players in the world of tech: Meta, OpenAI, Oracle, and Chevron, to name a few.

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Some states have already passed legislation making it easier for data center projects to set up shop.

In West Virginia, a new off-grid data center is being planned near the city of Davis. The project will include a gas plant large enough to produce enough power to fuel every home in the state.

“They removed local control completely for this speculative gold rush,” Amy Margolies, a resident fighting against the development, told the paper. “Everything is shrouded in secrecy, and the public is removed from the process.”

Some 5,246 data centers are operating in the U.S., according to the most recent information from the Data Center Map project, collectively consuming at least 17 gigawatts of power. A large nuclear power generator produces 1 gigawatt of energy, which can power between 300,000 and 750,000 homes.

In the race for AI dominance, countries are rolling out data centers at breakneck speed to cope with the immense amounts of compute needed.

Though the off-grid centers will incorporate solar power, most will rely on natural gas because more sustainable fuels provide less consistent output. Without an electric grid to act as a backup, natural gas will be the primary power source for the facilities. That will no doubt mean an increase in emissions at a time when human-driven climate change is already causing more frequent severe weather across the country.

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“It is catastrophic for climate goals,” Michael Thomas, founder of Cleanview, an energy industry research group, told the Post. Cleanview has identified 47 off-grid data center projects across the country.

Even though the data centers will be off-grid, that doesn’t mean that typical ratepayers are isolated from the consequences of these developments.

Jigar Shah, an energy entrepreneur who helped manage federal energy investments under the Joe Biden administration, told the Post that tech companies, with their virtually limitless resources, will now be competing for maintenance and equipment against public utilities.

If it takes longer—or becomes prohibitively expensive—for utility companies or public utility agencies to access equipment, they will have to pour more money into trying to maintain older infrastructure. The cost of those rising maintenance expenses will almost certainly be passed on to ratepayers. In other words, their bills will go up.

“This whole thing feels like a fairy tale concocted on the back of a napkin,” Shah said.

Tech companies trying to build data centers on regional power grids have, in some cases, been throttled by how much energy grid operators can provide to their projects while still serving regular ratepayers.

That’s one of the reasons Elon Musk opted last year to build an entirely off-grid data center in Memphis. Bypassing the local grid allowed him to get the data center—used by his xAI company—running in a matter of months rather than years. His project is powered by dozens of portable gas generators: efficient, but not without environmental costs.

The Environmental Protection Agency ruled last month that Musk’s setup illegally breached emissions rules and told xAI to obtain permits for its generators.

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When data centers do try to set up shop in populated areas, they’ve faced opposition from locals who do not want the noise and emissions pollution in their neighborhoods or who balk at the massive water and energy use—and the inflated energy bills that come along with the projects.

A large data center can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day—the equivalent of a town of 10,000–50,000 people—according to the Environment and Energy Institute.

A group of concerned citizens in Tucson, Arizona, managed to defeat a proposal for a large data center in the city called “Project Blue,” citing water usage in the already parched desert and the potential for increased energy bills.

Data center operators no doubt hope to mitigate some of the public’s concerns by building off-grid.

“As designed, it is intended to operate independently and does not rely on ratepayer-funded infrastructure or impact existing residential customers,” Fundamental Data, the company building the Davis, West Virginia, data center, told the Post.

Though many of the tech companies backing the off-grid data centers have kept their names off the projects until they’ve gone through the permitting and clearance process, Meta has been upfront about its upcoming builds.

The parent company of Facebook has one project underway called Socrates in New Albany, Ohio, that will use a pair of off-grid gas power plants to provide its energy needs. That site is scheduled to go live later this year.

Meta is also building data centers in El Paso, where it’s working with a local utility provider to build a gas-generating facility through the linking of 813 smaller generators. Local and city officials protested the project, claiming Meta only received approval to build by stating the site would use clean energy.

El Paso Electric, Meta’s local energy partner, wrote in regulatory filings that to power the site using solar panels and battery storage, it “would require thousands of acres adjacent to the Data Center site which are not available,” according to a Texas Tribune report.

Meta said in a statement to the Post that it plans to fulfill its clean energy obligation by buying clean energy and adding it to the grid.

“As with all of our data centers, including dozens of renewable projects throughout Texas, we work to add energy to the grid and match our data center’s electricity use with 100% clean and renewable energy,” the statement said.

Shah is skeptical about the projects, noting that even with tech companies’ deep pockets, they can’t ensure uninterrupted reliability without the security of a major grid.

“I get that cost is no object for these companies and they just want to get online,” Shah told the Post. “But they have not figured out even with unlimited funds how to make these plants run with 24/7 reliability.”